RaeOvSun

Preview: ADENIUM

As a means to force myself to finish this novel, lol, I’ve decided to periodically share tidbits. Please let me know your thoughts! If this one catches your attention then I shall continue. If not, I’ll pin it to the board lol!

PREFACE

Deep in the water where only darkness grows

Lie the hollowed out memories of all she’s known

A lifeless corpse too bogged down to float

Such is the consequence of the life she chose

PROLOGUE

So you’re the one fucking my husband?” her words are sharp, menacing, and to the point though there is a hint of amusement in her tone that is altogether unsettling. She smiles, eyes twinkling with delight while drumming the pads of her long fingers upon the glass surface of the table, leaving behind streaks of her fingerprints that I am certain will be wiped away following whatever transpires here tonight.

“I didn’t…” I start before she slowly shakes her head to silence me causing my already freezing blood to run impossibly colder.

“Oh, no, kitten, let’s not lie today,” is her warning and she nods toward the empty chair before her at the table. “It’s not becoming of you.”

SOPHIE

“You must love the way you taste?”

I look up from the novel that I had been engrossed in, brows furrowed, as the disturbing words so neatly packaged in a deep and rich masculine voice echo in my ears. Against my better judgement I drag my eyes away from my last sentence and upward to determine what kind of a prick would have the nerve to utter the words just spoken to me. I am instantly filled with regret.

The tasteless words originated from perfect lips shielding a crooked yet charming smile. Standing tall above me he gazes down with dark eyes, drowning me in their intrigue, like a young boy whom has just discovered his new favorite thing. I note the perfectly combed black hair, the designer button-down shirt with sleeves rolled just pass the forearm, and pressed slacks. He is not wearing a ring but he is a kept man. Everything about him screams that a woman’s touch is ever-present in his day-to-day world.

“Your lip,” he gestures at his own with a pointed index finger. “You’ve been chewing it idly for quite some time so I was only left to conclude that you must love the way that you taste? Incorrect assumption?”

“I just got lost in my reading,” I shake my head dismissively, completely unsure as to why I am answering him at all. “I didn’t even realize that it was something that I was doing,” I state before adding under my breath, “or that it was something that someone would be watching.”

“Forgive me,” he flattens the palm of his right hand to his chest. “I know that you don’t know me and the statement may have come across strangely. I had just noticed you here, so engulfed in your reading, and you,” he sighs inwardly, “you just kind of captured my attention.”

“That’s different,” I bookmark my novel and begin to tuck it away into my bag.

“Do you have a name?”

“Don’t we all?” I begin to stand and he takes a step back to allow it.

He chuckles lightly, “Also an assumption. May I ask what yours is?”

“Sophie,” I supply, once again, against my better judgement.

“Sophie…?” he leads as if my last name will immediately follow.

“Sophie, whom has a boyfriend, has no interest in nameless man that reeks of a live-in partner, fiancé or possible wife.”

“Is it on my clothes?” he lifts his right shoulder to sniff his own scent. “I’m really going to have to take these to the cleaners. To reek of a relationship when you are engaging a beautiful young woman in conversation is absolutely unacceptable. It’s an assault on the senses, if you ask me?”

I laugh despite myself and the second that the sound escapes my lips I begin to desperately search for all of the pieces to drag it back in. He smiles warmly and, unbeknownst to me, has already lured me in.

“Sophie,” he repeats my name slowly as if first getting a taste of it, appreciating, and then savoring it’s very flavor. “I’m Patrick.”

Hanging my handbag over my shoulder, keeping my thumb crooked just beneath the strap, I use the digits of my free hand to secure the loose tendrils of my hair behind my ear as a means to avoid shaking his extending hand. “Patrick, it’s definitely been interesting but I really have to be going.”